Earnings Fuel Stock Gain (Bloomberg)
On the back of expectation-beating earnings from several companies and March’s rise in new home sales, stocks rose today. “So far so good on the earnings season, which has been fair, but we still need to see a lot of company reports,” Mark Kravietz, a Melville, New York-based partner and managing director at HighTower Advisors LLC, said. “We’re still in a bull market but in a pause to refresh after the first quarter rally.”

Market Briefly Plunges on Hacked Twitter Report (CNBC)
Earlier today, the AP’s Twitter account was hacked and used to display a false report of an explosion at the White House, sending stocks into a minutes-long freefall before the situation was corrected. Stocks quickly rose to their previous position. “That goes to show you how algorithms read headlines and create these automatic orders – you don’t even have time to react as a human being,” said Kenny Polcari of O’Neill Securities. “I’d imagine the SEC’s going to look into how this happens. It’s not about banning computers, but it’s about protection and securing our markets.”

Euro Hits Two-Week Low (Reuters)
Weak data coming from Germany sent the euro to its lowest point against the U.S. dollar in two weeks. The data raised fears of the European Central Bank cutting interest rates. “Given the deteriorating fundamentals in the euro zone, the prospect of (an ECB rate cut) has certainly increased,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York. “A rate cut would be the quickest and least expensive policy course.”